Latest news with #geneticgenealogy
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Yahoo
How investigators just ID'd remains of Ravenna woman found in Pa. 46 years ago
PERRY COUNTY, Pa. (WJW) — Human remains discovered in south-central Pennsylvania 46 years ago have been identified as those of a missing Ravenna woman. According to a release from Pennsylvania State Police, the remains were found along Route 322 in Watts Township on June 20, 1979. They were severely decomposed and mostly skeletonized. Man dies after being 'deliberately struck' by vehicle in Cleveland Metroparks: police They were found over an embankment along the shore of the Juniata River. The remains were identified as those of a woman, thought to be roughly 15 to 30 years of age, between 5'2″ and 5'9″ tall with brownish blonde hair. Investigators have continued to look into the case as technology has developed over the past 46 years. Recent advancements in DNA analysis and genetic genealogy prompted additional investigation in 2023. After analysis on two molars belonging to the woman, a distant family member was identified. Through additional DNA, other family members in the Ravenna area were found. The woman was identified as Dorris Joanne Girtz, originally of Ravenna/Streetsboro. She would have been 23 at the time of her disappearance. Freighter crashes into East Bank of the Flats, becomes stuck The cause and manner of her death are under investigation. Anyone with information on Girtz during the years of 1977 to 1979 or with information relating to her disappearance or death are asked to call the Pennsylvania State Police Newport Station at 717-567-3110 or PSP Tips at 1-800-472-8477. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBC
11-06-2025
- CBC
Crown concedes defence appeal in 1994 double murder days after charges against co-accused stayed
The Crown has consented to a retrial for one of the men accused in a 30-year-old double murder, just days after abandoning the prosecution of a second man facing the same charges. In 2023 Leonard Cochrane, 55, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the 1994 fatal shootings of Barry Buchart and Trevor Deakins. Cochrane appealed his convictions, but the case hadn't yet make it to a hearing. Instead the Crown conceded the defence appeal, citing a "disclosure issue," according to Cochrane's lawyer Balfour Der. The news comes after charges against Cochrane's co-accused, Stuart MacGregor, were dropped on Friday due to what the prosecution called "a significant issue with the evidence." Charges were laid in the once-cold case with the help of genetic genealogical investigative techniques. Investigators tracked down family members of the suspect, which ultimately led to Cochrane's arrest after his DNA was matched to blood found at the crime scene. "We're pleased with that decision [to concede the appeal], but we felt we had some good grounds of appeal to pursue on very novel points that no doubt would have found their way to the Supreme Court of Canada," said Der. Buchart, 26, and Deakins, 25, were killed in 1994 in their home in the southeast community of Radisson Heights. Both victims were shot at point-blank range. At the time, Buchart sold marijuana. In Cochrane's trial, the judge found that he was one of two masked men who broke into the victims' home on July 11, 1994, to steal drugs or money. Cochrane was arrested in 2020, MacGregor was charged three years later.
CNN
28-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
How a controversial type of warrant helped convict a former Arkansas police chief of a decades-old rape
Crime GeneticsFacebookTweetLink Follow DNA evidence has become a cornerstone of modern police work, be it through the use of genetic genealogy or submitting material found before modern advances in testing. One tool, known as a John Doe DNA warrant, has made news after a former police chief serving sentences for murder and rape escaped from an Arkansas prison Sunday. This type of warrant uses DNA recovered from a scene to help identify a suspect not known by name, keeping open cases that might have already hit a statute of limitations, according to the National Institute of Justice, the research branch of the US Department of Justice. 56-year-old Grant Hardin, who escaped from prison Sunday, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the death of James Appleton in February 2017, according to court documents. When his DNA was entered into the Arkansas DNA database, it triggered a 14-year-old warrant issued in connection to the 1997 rape of a schoolteacher in Rogers, showing him to be a match to the semen sample taken from the scene. He was charged with the woman's rape, and later pleaded guilty to two rape charges associated with the case. Hardin's case is just one example of how these warrants have been used over the last 25 years. While some think this specialized warrant is a new opportunity for justice, legal experts argue that DNA is not infallible — and this practice has the potential to violate the rights of suspects. Here is how John Doe DNA warrants have been used over the last 25 years. In 2000, a Wisconsin prosecutor issued a John Doe DNA arrest warrant on a 1994 sexual assault case, just days before the statute of limitations was about to run out, according to a retelling from the National Institute of Justice. The warrant was based on the perpetrator's DNA profile obtained from evidence, the National Institute of Justice said. While it was a new concept, the prosecutor argued the DNA profile could be accepted by the court as an identification of the person who was to be arrested. About three months later, the system identified the DNA profile as Bobby Dabney, a Wisconsin inmate who was ultimately convicted for the sexual assault at trial, the National Institute of Justice said. A 2003 Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision upheld the use of a John Doe DNA warrant, saying the case didn't violate the statute of limitations, and his due process rights weren't violated. An earlier case took decades to pan out. In March 2000, California authorities issued a John Doe DNA warrant associated with three sexual assault cases in northern California from the 1990s. Since the perpetrator's DNA was not already in state systems, it made it harder to identify, but they were able to narrow down their suspects through genetic genealogy, which blends DNA analysis in the lab with genealogical research. Authorities arrested Mark Jeffery Manteuffel in relation to the case across the country in Georgia in 2019. He pleaded guilty to two charges of forcible rape and one count of sodomy in 2020, the Associated Press reported. In 1997, Amy Harrison, a teacher, went to her school on a Sunday as she prepared for the week ahead. A church service was being held in the nearby cafeteria, so she was aware of others being in the building, a probable cause affidavit in the case said. After being at the school for a bit, she went to the bathroom in the teacher's lounge. But when she came out, she was attacked and raped by a man pointing a gun at her, the document said. While the assault was underway, she wiped a liquid substance off her leg and onto her sweatshirt, which authorities were able to get a DNA profile from, the affidavit says. While investigators spent the next six years trying to find the perpetrator, they had no luck, former Rogers Police Chief Hayes Minor said in an Investigation Discovery documentary on the case. (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.) 'The laws of the state were very different then. And there's something called a statute of limitations, and basically what that means is that after a certain length of time, that case can no longer be prosecuted,' he said, adding that the day the assault happened was when 'the clock starts ticking for us.' After those six years, they wouldn't be able to prosecute the perpetrator even if they found him, Minor said — so they decided to try using a DNA profile on the warrant, as it had been recently used by a Wisconsin prosecutor to keep their case open. 'I typed it up, prosecuting attorney's office approved it, and we go to the judge and he signed it, which gave us then an active arrest warrant. We just had to figure out who it was that had that DNA,' Minor said in the documentary. It took 14 years before the DNA profile was connected to Hardin. While prosecutors continue to use John Doe DNA warrants, some law and professional organizations argue against them. In 2004, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors adopted a resolution against the warrants, saying 'those charged in such a manner could be seriously hampered in their ability to mount an effective defense.' They argue that many factors could play into the reliability of DNA samples, including degradation over time, errors in collection and issues in storage. 'DNA is but one tool of many that should be utilized in determining whether an individual is responsible for a particular crime,' the resolution says. CNN has reached out to the organization to inquire if they still hold this position two decades later. The use of John Doe DNA indictments 'subverts defendants' rights by working around legislatively created statutes of limitations,' writes Emily Clarke in her 2019 journal article in the American Criminal Law Review. She argues instead for removing the statute of limitations in rape cases altogether. Not abiding by the statute of limitations could also undermine a fundamental tenet of the criminal justice system, Clarke wrote. 'In a society where defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, courts of law should not be relying on the presumption that whoever left DNA at the scene of a crime is guilty,' the article says.
CNN
28-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
How a controversial type of warrant helped convict a former Arkansas police chief of a decades-old rape
Crime GeneticsFacebookTweetLink Follow DNA evidence has become a cornerstone of modern police work, be it through the use of genetic genealogy or submitting material found before modern advances in testing. One tool, known as a John Doe DNA warrant, has made news after a former police chief serving sentences for murder and rape escaped from an Arkansas prison Sunday. This type of warrant uses DNA recovered from a scene to help identify a suspect not known by name, keeping open cases that might have already hit a statute of limitations, according to the National Institute of Justice, the research branch of the US Department of Justice. 56-year-old Grant Hardin, who escaped from prison Sunday, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the death of James Appleton in February 2017, according to court documents. When his DNA was entered into the Arkansas DNA database, it triggered a 14-year-old warrant issued in connection to the 1997 rape of a schoolteacher in Rogers, showing him to be a match to the semen sample taken from the scene. He was charged with the woman's rape, and later pleaded guilty to two rape charges associated with the case. Hardin's case is just one example of how these warrants have been used over the last 25 years. While some think this specialized warrant is a new opportunity for justice, legal experts argue that DNA is not infallible — and this practice has the potential to violate the rights of suspects. Here is how John Doe DNA warrants have been used over the last 25 years. In 2000, a Wisconsin prosecutor issued a John Doe DNA arrest warrant on a 1994 sexual assault case, just days before the statute of limitations was about to run out, according to a retelling from the National Institute of Justice. The warrant was based on the perpetrator's DNA profile obtained from evidence, the National Institute of Justice said. While it was a new concept, the prosecutor argued the DNA profile could be accepted by the court as an identification of the person who was to be arrested. About three months later, the system identified the DNA profile as Bobby Dabney, a Wisconsin inmate who was ultimately convicted for the sexual assault at trial, the National Institute of Justice said. A 2003 Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision upheld the use of a John Doe DNA warrant, saying the case didn't violate the statute of limitations, and his due process rights weren't violated. An earlier case took decades to pan out. In March 2000, California authorities issued a John Doe DNA warrant associated with three sexual assault cases in northern California from the 1990s. Since the perpetrator's DNA was not already in state systems, it made it harder to identify, but they were able to narrow down their suspects through genetic genealogy, which blends DNA analysis in the lab with genealogical research. Authorities arrested Mark Jeffery Manteuffel in relation to the case across the country in Georgia in 2019. He pleaded guilty to two charges of forcible rape and one count of sodomy in 2020, the Associated Press reported. In 1997, Amy Harrison, a teacher, went to her school on a Sunday as she prepared for the week ahead. A church service was being held in the nearby cafeteria, so she was aware of others being in the building, a probable cause affidavit in the case said. After being at the school for a bit, she went to the bathroom in the teacher's lounge. But when she came out, she was attacked and raped by a man pointing a gun at her, the document said. While the assault was underway, she wiped a liquid substance off her leg and onto her sweatshirt, which authorities were able to get a DNA profile from, the affidavit says. While investigators spent the next six years trying to find the perpetrator, they had no luck, former Rogers Police Chief Hayes Minor said in an Investigation Discovery documentary on the case. (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.) 'The laws of the state were very different then. And there's something called a statute of limitations, and basically what that means is that after a certain length of time, that case can no longer be prosecuted,' he said, adding that the day the assault happened was when 'the clock starts ticking for us.' After those six years, they wouldn't be able to prosecute the perpetrator even if they found him, Minor said — so they decided to try using a DNA profile on the warrant, as it had been recently used by a Wisconsin prosecutor to keep their case open. 'I typed it up, prosecuting attorney's office approved it, and we go to the judge and he signed it, which gave us then an active arrest warrant. We just had to figure out who it was that had that DNA,' Minor said in the documentary. It took 14 years before the DNA profile was connected to Hardin. While prosecutors continue to use John Doe DNA warrants, some law and professional organizations argue against them. In 2004, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors adopted a resolution against the warrants, saying 'those charged in such a manner could be seriously hampered in their ability to mount an effective defense.' They argue that many factors could play into the reliability of DNA samples, including degradation over time, errors in collection and issues in storage. 'DNA is but one tool of many that should be utilized in determining whether an individual is responsible for a particular crime,' the resolution says. CNN has reached out to the organization to inquire if they still hold this position two decades later. The use of John Doe DNA indictments 'subverts defendants' rights by working around legislatively created statutes of limitations,' writes Emily Clarke in her 2019 journal article in the American Criminal Law Review. She argues instead for removing the statute of limitations in rape cases altogether. Not abiding by the statute of limitations could also undermine a fundamental tenet of the criminal justice system, Clarke wrote. 'In a society where defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, courts of law should not be relying on the presumption that whoever left DNA at the scene of a crime is guilty,' the article says.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cornyn, Welch introduce the Carla Walker Act to help solve cold cases
May 22—WASHINGTON U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Peter Welch (D-VT) on Thursday introduced the Carla Walker Act, which would dedicate existing federal grant funds to support forensic genetic genealogy (FGG) DNA analysis and help solve previously unsolvable cold cases. The bill is named for Carla Walker, a Fort Worth native whose murderer was finally identified 46 years after her death with the help of this advanced technology. "Fort Worth native Carla Walker was abducted in a bowling alley and tragically murdered in 1974, but it took more than four decades and the advent of forensic genetic genealogy DNA analysis for her killer to be identified and brought to justice," said Sen. Cornyn. "I am proud to have authored this legislation, which would make this cutting-edge DNA testing technology more widely available to law enforcement so they can better identify and prosecute offenders, solve cold cases, and bring closure to victims' families." "Advancements in forensic DNA technology have revolutionized our ability to combat crime. In Vermont, detectives were able to use forensic genetic genealogy analysis to help provide answers to a family who thought they might never come. We've also seen how this technology can be a powerful tool in giving those wrongly accused a chance to clear their names," said Sen. Welch. "Our bipartisan bill will help investigators across the country harness the incredible power of FGG technology to crack cold cases and deliver justice to countless victims and families, and I'm thankful for Senator Cornyn's leadership on it." U.S. Congressman Wesley Hunt (TX-38) is leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives. Background: Typically, when a suspect's identity is unknown, a crime laboratory uploads the genetic material recovered from a crime scene into the FBI's national database to search for DNA matches between the forensic sample and any known offenders. While this traditional form of forensic DNA profiling only examines 13-20 Short tandem repeat (STR) DNA markers, forensic genetic genealogy (FGG) technology examines over half a million Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) that span the entirety of the human genome. It does so by cross-referencing shared blocks of SNP markers to identify relatives of the genetic profile by uncovering shared blocks of DNA. This enables criminal investigators to build family trees that ultimately help determine the sample's identity and solve cases. Carla Walker was abducted from a bowling alley parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas, on February 17, 1974. Her body was found three days later in a drainage ditch 30 minutes south of Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Police Department was able to collect a few forensic samples and clothing items from the crime scene, but law enforcement could not solve the murder due to limited forensic technology at the time. Carla's brother, Jim Walker, never stopped searching for answers and nearly 50 years later, FGG DNA analysis was conducted on the last remaining DNA on a piece of Walker's clothing, which led to a successful DNA match with the McCurley family and ultimately identified Glen McCurley, Jr. as the killer, who confessed in 2021 and died in prison on July 14, 2023. Sen. Cornyn's Carla Walker Act would create a pilot program to make this cutting-edge FGG DNA analysis more widely available to investigative agencies to: — Aid in resolving previously unsolvable cold cases; — Assist in the identification of criminals; — Seek justice for previously unidentified victims; — Help exonerate wrongly accused suspects; — And bring closure for the victims' loved ones.
